by rburgh » Sat Apr 14, 2012 1:37 pm
Mike was quite a character. Of course, he did not have a monopoly on that title in the major leagues of the day. There were some really colorful characters in the game back then.
He was one of the fortunate ones. Delahanty fell into the Niagara River on one of his drinking binges on a train, while Donlin simply spent a night in jail. And when he walked away from baseball, he ended up in the movies, while Rusie and Brouthers ended up as night watchmen at the Polo Grounds.
And, despite his temper, he was apparently popular throughout baseball, unlike Tinker and Evers or Cobb and Crawford, who couldn't even stand the guy they played next to in the field. I wonder who in recent times you could compare him to. Pete Rose?